Protecting the Prince

by Dana Volney

  “Yeah. He started digging after someone else was trying to steal his payday and found out I was your security, not your assassin. He doesn’t take kindly to double-crossers.”

  “How in the hell do you know this guy?”

  “Army days. He is really just an acquaintance. But that is also how we know there is more than one person or group that wants you dead.”

  “There’s Franklin—well, not him anymore—the Russians, and you. Yes, thanks for reminding me of the tally.”

  “I don’t. I never did.”

  “I was right not to trust you.” He shook his head as he averted his gaze to the ground. “First instincts are always the right ones.”

  She took a step toward him before stopping. They weren’t lovers. Ending their spat couldn’t be done with a kiss or a touch. They were colleagues, contractor and client. Nothing more.

  “You don’t have to trust me.”

  “Just do what you say? I think those days are behind us.”

  “We’re making headway on the problem. I have a way to deal with the Russians as well, although I’ll need your help.” And she needed to make a call to her guy at Interpol.

  “This is where we part ways.” He was back at his suitcase, zipping it up.

  “That would be a mistake.”

  “It’s my life and my problem. Not yours. None of this was ever your problem.”

  His gaze was no longer hostile. It was one of stubbornness. She would’ve rather he still be mad and not determined to leave.

  “Wrong. I’m on the hook now, too, with Holland.” Eliam didn’t need to know that her debt was more than likely already settled.

  “You’re what?” His eyebrows knitted together.

  Concern rippled across his face, softening his edges, and he took a step toward her.

  “Holland. Like I said, he’s not happy with my actions.”

  “Dammit.”

  “Yeah, so we need to stick together to solve this problem, then we can go our separate ways.” She didn’t look at him, instead turning away to open the internal door.

  Separate ways—that sucked to say. Was there ever going to be a world in which they were not going to be on different paths? For a couple of hours last night there had been. Was that what she wanted? What would a future with Eliam even look like? Damn sexy, for one.

  She was done having this conversation. Felix wasn’t going to let him leave. If they had to hold Eliam hostage, then that would be what she and her team would do. For his own good. Someday he’d see that. Someday he’d understand. Although she would like to avoid kidnapping charges, that option was better than either one of them dying.

  “What do you have?” she asked Eddie. “I need good news.”

  Felix stood silently by Eddie. She shook her head once to indicate he didn’t need to go in there and subdue Eliam. Eliam would stay. She was sure of it. There was something in his phrases, the way he acted. Yeah, the new information he’d received wasn’t great, but he seemed to move past that once he found out her life was also in danger.

  Did he care for her? Or did he feel some sort of obligation since they’d just shared one hell of a night together? It was hard to tell. She hadn’t slept much in the past twenty-four hours—the lines of what she was actually seeing versus what she wanted to see were blurred. Her read was off.

  Get it together, Wyn. This is your job, your livelihood, and you’re good at it. Snap back.

  “I sent the location over to Alex. He has a team on the way,” Eddie reported. “I’m locked in to their channel if you want to hear.”

  “I hope they get him.” Waiting was the worst. “Something tells me they won’t.”

  Holland was smart. If they were broadcasting, there was no way Holland didn’t know. Hopefully, he’d gone back to bed.

  She paced the room. Eliam still hadn’t come in. The door separating them was cracked, but she hadn’t heard the main door open, so he hadn’t made a break for it.

  She palmed the top of her head, pushing down her wayward curls.

  “We thought it was Franklin who put the hit out. It wasn’t. The Primack family needs Eliam alive, so they really only want to scare him. We’re missing something.” Her gut twisted and her entire body felt like one big knot. “Who the fuck is behind this? Any information on the board or his cousin?” She looked to the men who were being awfully quiet this morning. Normally they had opinions galore. “What? Spill it. What’s your issue?”

  “Maybe you aren’t thinking clearly on this one.” Eddie’s glance flitted to the internal door before meeting her eyes.

  “Then, please, by all means. What have I missed?”

  Just then her phone buzzed. Alex.

  “Hey.” She put it on speakerphone to save herself from rehashing the conversation.

  “He was gone. Cleared out.”

  Of course he was. But now the sleazebag was on a radar he wasn’t on before and hadn’t wanted to ever be on. Anonymity was precious to a guy like Holland, and she took satisfaction in playing a role in him losing that. She wanted him to lose a lot more.

  “Maybe next time don’t announce you’re on your way and you’ll catch the guy.”

  Alex took a heavy breath. Yeah, he didn’t deserve her snark. “Maybe next time you don’t get involved with a dickface and then expect me to clean up your mess.”

  “I expected nothing.”

  “Give me a break, Wyn. I’ve put out a BOLO. Let me know if you get a location again.”

  “Yeah.”

  They disconnected and she twirled her phone between her thumb and middle finger.

  “Back to your guy in there.” Eddie was tapping away on his keys. He’d commandeered the entire round table as his workstation with his laptop and other devices she had no idea what purpose they served. She never asked questions when Eddie needed equipment. Days like today reminded her she was glad he had it. “He does business with the shadiest of the shady.”

  “We already know about the Primack family,” she snapped back. Why everyone had their panties in a twist about the damn Russians she didn’t know—they weren’t that hard to deal with if you knew the right people.

  “Did you know he called them about an hour ago?” Eddie raised his eyebrows.

  “What? Not possible. I took his phone away.” And then it was on the hotel floor with my clothes. Shit. Will the man ever listen? He had no reason to call the Russians. They weren’t even the immediate problem. Is Holland going to run or attack? They should leave the hotel. He might have been tracking them.

  “We need to go.” She looked to Felix, and he started helping Eddie pack up his equipment. They’d all reached the same conclusion.

  She pushed open the internal door but stopped short. Something wasn’t right. Eliam’s suitcase was lying on the floor in front of the bed. Careful to be quick and silent, she signaled to Felix and Eddie that something was wrong, turned on the walkie-talkie function on her phone so they could hear, and slipped it into her jacket pocket. They nodded, prepared to head out, and she continued into the room.

  She drew her gun. “We are heading out. This location isn’t safe.” She swept the room quickly and found Eliam.

  “Winter!” he yelled. “Stay back.”

  She had her gun trained on Holland’s head in a matter of seconds. Too bad Holland had the nose of his gun firmly planted on Eliam’s temple, holding him to the wooden chair at the room table.

  “Holland. Let him go.” She didn’t know how long the man had been there or what he’d heard—if he’d heard her and her team talking, hopefully Holland would just think she’d had them on speakerphone. He was dressed in black cargo pants, T-shirt, and cargo boots. He had plans after this little visit. The man always had plans.

  “I thought he was dead.” He pushed his gun into Eliam, causing Eliam to move his head down to the left.

  “Surprise,” she sang.

  “Aw, and it’s not even my birthday.” Holland’s tone was back to carefree. God, he was creepy.
He was handsome, tan with the blond hair of a surfer, and yet he was dead behind his light blue eyes—haunting eyes.

  “I’m good at what I do.” She didn’t dare break eye contact with him. “Surely you knew the package was a dumb play.”

  “You win some, you lose some.” He shrugged. “And then when incompetent morons can’t take care of business, you do it yourself.”

  “What are you here to do, exactly?” she asked.

  “Those types of questions get people into trouble. I think it’s fairly obvious.”

  “Why Franklin?” She hoped to God he said that it was because the job had gone to shit and he was cleaning up loose ends.

  “He was a job. Just like this one.” He patted Eliam’s shoulder. “What? Was he a client, too?”

  “Did the same person commission both?”

  She snuck a glance at Eliam as Holland’s eyes strayed from hers. He had blood on his left temple and sat with his hands in his lap—they were held together with plastic zip-tie cuffs. They locked eyes. He didn’t show the panic she expected; once again Eliam was clearly looking for his chance to punch this clown in the throat. God, she loved his reactions to impossible situations. Being pissed was better than scared—fear made people do really stupid things; anger was a step above. Usually.

  “What do you think, Wyn? Stepfather and son on a list? Um, yeah, the same person paid. Handsomely.”

  “Okay, I can do without the attitude, thanks.”

  “What are you waiting on?” Eliam asked her.

  Holland looked down at Eliam and laughed. “There’s a pair on this one. I’m still hurt you picked him over me. But I’m beginning to see it.”

  He has officially got a screw loose. Holland probably never had a full deck to begin with. From here on out, she was staying away from psychopaths.

  The curtains behind Holland were still pulled and they were on the second floor—the only way out of the room was through either room’s front door. Which meant he was going to have to go through her. She could take the shot—Holland’s face wasn’t hidden—but she wasn’t willing to chance her target pulling the trigger and killing Eliam. Plus, she didn’t have a big enough history with Eliam to be able to warn him so he could move.

  Maybe Eddie was across the street trying to get a heat signal to shoot blind. Adrenaline coursed through her body, and she kept her breath steady to deal with the influx of juice. She both liked and hated this fictitious plan she’d come up with for Eddie.

  Options were becoming extremely limited on how Eliam was going to get out of this alive.

  “Let’s talk about this a little bit, huh, Holland?” Her index finger pulled back on her trigger a little. Dammit, she wanted to end this. “Remember all of the stuff we shared in the desert? I saved your life, remember?”

  “Which is why we’re even.”

  “We are?”

  “I only took your home. You were lucky enough to survive. You deserve to live.”

  She risked another glance at Eliam. “What about him?”

  “Nope. I have a contract to fulfill.”

  “Think about this logically. You hurt him, you don’t make it one step without a bullet in the head.”

  “Oh, Wyn, only seeing what’s in front of you. You think I just trapped myself in this room with you without an exit plan?”

  “Who knows?” Anything is possible with you, nutball.

  “My ride”—he tapped the top of Eliam’s head with the barrel of his pistol before putting it back on Eliam’s temple—“is almost here. Any minute now.”

  “I can’t let you leave.” She swayed her head from side to side.

  “You can and you will.” The playfulness in his voice was gone, and his light blue eyes pinned her.

  Yep, there’s crazy in this one’s system. It’s okay, Eddie and Felix are out there. She just had to keep Holland busy until they got a plan in place and executed it—they were her only hope. It was a good thing she trusted them with her life. And Eliam’s. She wiggled her toes in her boots to deal with the adrenaline. She didn’t want to make a false move and cause Holland to pull the trigger.

  There was a scuffle in the hallway. She knew either Eddie or Felix could take care of whatever backup Holland had. And with his Plan B gone, Holland might think twice about his future.

  One of the men she recognized from Eliam’s meeting with the Primack family opened the front door of the hotel room just enough that she could see Felix behind him, out of Holland’s view, nodding and mouthing, “It’s okay.”

  It’s okay? What the shit? Sure, why not add to the room more people who wanted to see Eliam distressed, hurt, killed? What an outstanding fucking idea. She was quickly becoming outnumbered. For all the equipment that Eddie had ever asked for, he’d never asked for ear comms. She was going to change that in a big way after this job. Being in the dark with guns involved was never fun—today, watching a gun held to Eliam was even more sucky. Still, she refused to acknowledge Eliam might die, right in front of her, at the hands of Holland and this Russian jackwad.

  She rolled her eyes, but was careful to keep her attention on the Russian. “Can just anyone ask at the front desk for a key to my room? Holy hell. I’m never staying here again.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Eliam sat up a little straighter when Vlad walked through the door. Was he there working for him or Holland? Dammit to hell. If they double-crossed him, so help him, he would haunt them for the rest of their crappy lives.

  “Holland.” Vlad spoke with a lighter Russian accent than Matvey. “I thought you said you’d have this under control by the time I got here.”

  Vlad, one of Matvey’s top guys, hopefully hadn’t come alone. Or hopefully he did. Yep, this was one hell of a predicament. If he died because he’d called the Primack family to get Holland, he’d never hear the end of it from Winter.

  “I do.” Holland moved his gun, releasing the pressure on Eliam’s temple.

  When his adrenaline wore off, he was going to have one hell of a headache. He clasped his hands together on his lap, the clamminess of them warm. Having a gun pulled on you wasn’t optimal, having one pushed in your face was worse.

  Vlad was quiet and Eliam caught his gaze but couldn’t read him.

  “I don’t want to be here long. Let’s go.” Vlad gazed at Winter and her gun pointed at Holland. “Put that down. It’s useless. Unless you want to die, too.” He put one hand in his gray slacks—the man had dressed in a suit for this outing.

  Winter conceded. Putting her gun to her side, with her finger still on the trigger, she watched Holland—if looks really did kill, Holland would be full of holes. Sweat started to dampen Eliam’s forehead.

  Eliam’s past couple of days were coming to a culmination. How exactly it was going to play out he had no idea. Winter looked calm. She stood with her legs shoulder-width apart, hands at her side, clutching her weapon and lips pushed tightly together. If he could just kiss her one more time. If today was his last day on earth, then he wanted to feel Winter’s lips on his one more time. Feel her nails scrape down his back and her thighs straddling his hips. Yeah, he needed to live through this—and when he did, they were going to have some very sexy alone time.

  “Let’s go.” Vlad nodded to Holland. “Bring him with.”

  That’s a good sign.

  “You’re screwing with my fun,” Holland snapped back. “You’re just my ride, buddy.”

  Vlad removed his hand from his pocket, producing a cell phone. “Nonnegotiable. Matvey’s orders.”

  Holland shoved Eliam at the base of his neck. “Get up. We’re leaving.”

  Eliam took a step toward the door. Should he try to get away or see how Vlad played it out? He clenched his fists; he wanted to punch Holland right in his smug face.

  Instead, he side-eyed Winter. Her dark blue eyes were on him. He wanted to reach out to her, but his hands were bound. Could he really leave her, possibly forever, and not give her a good-bye kiss?

  Holland dro
pped his weapon to his side and held his head high, grinning like the smug bastard he was.

  Holland pushed his shoulder and Eliam jostled to the side a step. To hell with it. He caught himself and spun around, swinging his arms together like a sword. He connected with the side of Holland’s face and followed through with the momentum, knocking Holland to the ground. Holland’s gun flew across the floor.

  Eliam looked to Vlad, who was rushing behind Holland. No gun drawn, no yelling. Yeah, Vlad was there on his behalf. He smiled to himself. They were safe.

  He took a step toward Winter until they were nose to nose and kissed her. He wanted to put his arms around her, pull her closer, but they were still bound. As if she was reading his mind, she wrapped her arms around his neck and entwined her tongue with his with extreme zeal. She was his oxygen. He wanted nothing more than to be alone with her in the room, rip her clothes off, and explore every inch of her skin.

  Scuffling behind him commanded both of their attentions. She broke their kiss and he stepped to the left to see what was happening. Vlad had Holland in a chokehold, then all of a sudden a loud cracking noise rendered Holland limp.

  Dead.

  Eliam stared at Holland’s body, lifeless on their hotel floor. Permanence of his situation sank into his bones again—and it was uncomfortable. Never in his life did he hope to see someone killed.

  Vlad stood, straightening his white shirt and jacket. “I’ll take care of him.”

  Felix and Eddie popped in behind them through the internal door.

  “I’ll need help getting him out to the car,” Vlad said to Felix.

  Felix stepped past Eliam and Winter and, without saying a word to Vlad, they each took an arm so Holland was in the middle. If you had to take a dead guy out in the open, it was probably best to make him look drunk.

  Vlad paused, catching Eliam’s gaze. “We’ll be in touch.”

  Eliam nodded. If there was any doubt he’d made a bad choice by calling Matvey this morning, it had been properly squashed. He and Winter and her team surely would be goners right now if he hadn’t called and made a new deal with the Primack family.

  The men crept out the door dragging Holland, Eddie trailing behind.